Babini elected new IKA president, Class Rules changes and Foilboarding

The IKA 2013 class AGM was held yesterday in London. The agenda comprised class rule issues as well as elections.

Many class rule changes for the Formula Kite class were approved, concluding the switch from the former "open" class rules into closed class rules and separating the racing discipline from the remaining disciplines freestyle, wave, speed and slalom. Also the KiteFoil class rules were approved - a new high performance development class. It was agreed that equipment regulations will only be introduced once the development has slowed down, a process similar to the evolution of the Formula Kite class.

2014 will see a new tour - the KiteFoil Gold Cup, with events planned in all parts of the world. The Tour Notice of Race will be published soon and the first event is expected to be held in La Ventana, Mexico, in March 2014.

Back to the Formula Kite class, the championship rules have been fixed for 2014 based on the experiences from the "testing season" 2013. The format for the 2013 worlds will be a three stage regatta, with qualifying series, final series and medal series. Sailors will carry two times their position after the qualifying series to the final series, and thereafter carry their complete score from the final series to the medal series. The courses have been also fixed and will be the ones recently used, windward/leewards with a bottom gate and a reach to the finish.

The age categories for the racing events have been adjusted to fit other ISAF classes, with youth being defined as "under 21" now and an additional category of "under 18".

Regarding world rankings for Formula Kite, from 2014 six events will count towards the overall score with a maximum of 3 major events counting (200 and 100 point events), the remaining points must be collected in regional events.

New equipment in 2014 will be eligible from July 1st. The registration deadline for the 2014 equipment cycle remains unchanged March 1st, 2014. All manufacturers interested in registering equipment for the next cycle need to complete the registration procedure by March 1st 2014 and have 10 pieces of equipment readily built.